Fox News has finally yelled fire in a crowded theater

Fox News has finally yelled fire in a crowded theater

Jun. 9, 2014 11:22 am

By Thom Hartmann A...

There were two terrorist attacks in America over the weekend, but don’t expect the mainstream media to call them that. On Friday, 48-year-old Georgia resident Dennis Marx was scheduled to appear at the Forsyth County Courthouse in Cumming, Georgia, to face charges on 11 different felony counts.

Forsyth arrived at the courthouse on-time, but while in his truck, he threw “homemade spike strips” onto the road, and tried to run over a policeman. After police opened fire on him, Forsyth began shooting at them from his truck, and proceeded to throw tear gas grenades, smoke grenades, and pepper spray grenades at them. After a three minute long firefight, a SWAT team surrounded Marx, ultimately killing him.

Meanwhile, yesterday in Las Vegas, an armed couple screaming about “revolution” opened fire and killed two Las Vegas policemen inside of a local pizza joint. After shooting and killing Officer Alyn Beck and Officer Igor Soldo, the couple took their weapons and covered their bodies with the Gadsden Flag, a yellow banner with contains a coiled snake around the words, “Don’t tread on me.” The flag is named for Christopher Gadsden, the Revolutionary War general who designed it. It’s also a very popular symbol with the Tea Party movement.

After killing the police officers, the couple then fled to a local Wal-Mart, where they killed an innocent bystander, before ultimately taking their own lives in an apparent murder-suicide. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, neighbors said the couple often spoke about mistrust for and killing of police officers, and “going underground” until the time was right. Neighbors also told the Review-Journal that the husband claimed he had been kicked off the Bundy Ranch during the protests there last month.

And back in April, Frazier Glenn Miller, a well-known right-wing extremist and member of the KKK, shoot and killed 14-year-old boy and his grandfather at a Jewish Community Center near Kansas City. Miller then drove to a Jewish retirement home, and killed another person. As police arrested him, Miller screamed out “Heil Hitler.”

Frazier Glenn Miller, Dennis Marx and the Las Vegas shooters were right-wing extremists and domestic terrorists. It’s that simple. Unfortunately, the media refuses to acknowledge right-wing extremism and domestic terrorism in our country, even though they pose a bigger threat to our national security than jihadists and Islamic extremists.

According to the New America Foundation, as of April of this year, 21 people had been killed in the United States in attacks motivated by Islamic extremism since 9/11. Meanwhile, 34 people had been killed by right-wing extremist attacks during the same time period.

The fact is, right-wing extremism is on the rise, it’s dangerous, and it’s now a major terrorist force in America. Right-wing extremist and militia groups aren’t the fringe groups they used to be - now Fox so-called News makes members of these groups like the ones who showed up at the Bundy Ranch into media stars and heroes. But while the facts speak for themselves, the mainstream media (CNN, MSNBC, FOX, The New York Times etc…) refuses to acknowledge the truth.

Can you imagine how outraged the media would be right now if Dennis Marx had been a 48-year-old brown Muslim guy? Fox So-Called News would be calling for heads to roll if the Las Vegas shooters had been a Muslim couple. And, news coverage would’ve been wall-to-wall if Frazier Glenn Miller had screamed out “Allah Akbar” instead of “Heil Hitler.” Instead, you have Conservative pundits like Sean Hannity running around, arguably egging on right-wing extremists.

In the nearly 13 years since 9/11, al Qaeda has not successfully pulled off another terrorist attack on U.S. soil. But right-wing extremists have. The first step to solving a problem is always being able to admit that you have it. It’s time for the media to start calling attacks like those in Las Vegas, Cumming, Georgia, and Kansas City what they are: right-wing-extremist-fueled terrorist attacks.

Comments

Richard Wilkinson in this book the “Spirit Level why greater equality makes societies stronger”, and Thomas Piketty also explains in his book called “Capital the 21st Century”, the danger of inequality bring to societies can cause significant harm to the structure of countries, to be able to function at a level that does not destroy the average working family. The incident in Las Vegas this past weekend is proof of that.

Thomas Jefferson was in France as Secretary of State just prior to the French Revolution. He saw the conditions that would eventually lead to that revolution and was taken: the hoarding of wealth, poor who could barely scrape up the wages for a meal, workers exploited by the rich for no good purpose.

The property of this country is absolutely concentrated in a very few hands, having revenues of from half a million of guineas a year downwards. These employ the flower of the country as servants, some of them having as many as 200 domestics, not laboring.

They employ also a great number of manufacturers and tradesmen, and lastly the class of laboring husbandmen. But after all there comes the most numerous of all classes, that is,the poor who cannot find work.

They only have to say, is that the government is coming to take your guns, the government wants to control your healthcare, the best way to return to your freedom is to privatize Social Security. All of these statements are a strawman argument. Which some of Americans do believe, and the only way to gain freedom is through a revolution, this is not the answer. The best way to return this country back to average Americans is do your own research, do not listen to the radical conservatives that's is only for the corporations of America. They will not try to promote more equality for American families, which who are the true back bone in the true job creators of this country, and not the top 1%, that only invest in the stock market and collect there dividend check setting around the pool having martinis, they will not build America back to a strong nation like we were before Pres. Ronald Reagan, but promote their own private interest instead.

This couple that did the attack in Las Vegas are America's terrorism that is created by inequality that we have in this country.

Why do people in more unequal societies have worse health and shorter lives than those in less unequal ones? Why do more unequal societies tend to have more violence and weaker community life? This paper discusses the research evidence on the psychosocial pathways which suggest how and why we are affected by inequality.

How big income differences are in any society seems to serve as an indicator of the scale of social differentiation and social distances within it. The evidence shows that more hierarchical societies incur a wide range of social costs reflecting the corrosive effects of inequality. But why are we so sensitive to inequality? Epidemiological research on health inequalities and the social determinants of health has demonstrated that the quality of the social environment has powerful effects on health. Particularly important are social status, friendship and early childhood experience. The indications are that poor health may share causal pathways with many other social problems associated with relative deprivation - including violence.

Richard G. Wilkinson

Here is more on how inequality affects trust, community life and violence,

The relationship between income and health is well established: the higher an individual's income, the better his or her health. However, recent research suggests that health may also be affected by the distribution of income within society. We outline the potential mechanisms underlying the so-called relative income hypothesis, which predicts that an individual's health status is better in societies with a more equal distribution of incomes. The effects of income inequality on health may be mediated by underinvestment in social goods, such as public education and health care; disruption of social cohesion and the erosion of social capital; and the harmful psychosocial effects of invidious social comparisons.

The question we have before us, is how are we going to fix this, or are we going to just to pass it on to the future.

Vegas56 -- Thank you for the blog and the links. I wish they would give the employment history of all domestic terrorists. I know the boston bombers were looking for a job for 2 years. I know the LAX shooter was looking for a job for a year.

Fox has the blood of the Vegas victims all over it's hands. Fox progams the litttle minds of borderline Teabag personalities like Jerad and Amanda everyday. Many are gun toting and have no clue that it's indirectly a few out of control billionaires screwing with their heads.

Just like Gabrielle Giffords in Palin's crosshairs, crazy Teabaggers feed off unreality being presented to them as if it were coming from a stable source with authority.

The National media isn't saying a word about these two being Cliven Bundy Teabagger types, but Jerad and Amanda left behind a trail of social media evidence that needs to be exposed right up to the midterms.

This violence has been spawned by billionaire sponsored Republican TV plain and simple.

Right wing cable news they have the capability to mislead the ignorant down the path of self-destruction with Americans in their way, just for the promotion of the elite and privilege to unbelievable wealth, while putting the average working American family into debt and into a indentured service which there is no end to, but to serve the master. Freedom of speech, it does have a cost, we should hold these Cable News Network’s responsible for their actions, not by government law or power, but by saying no to their noise of misleading information by not watching their network, that will encourage the ignorant into needless violence.

The really scary question about this incident is that if we have these ticking time bombs out there; just how many more are out there waiting to explode? If the corporate media is really the major influence behind this event then the group that such people belong to by far represents the majority of the population. This might just be the tip of the iceberg.

C: give me your money!
L: No!
(He hit me and robbed me)
C: give me some more money!
L: No, you bully!
(He hit me and robbed me again)
C: Be my slave and work for peanuts!
L: No, you're vile and contemptable!
(he hit me and robbed me yet again and spit in my face)
C: Now die because I'm tired of hearing you whine, but hand over the rest of your money first!
L: No, you'll be sorry when we vote in more Democrats!
(He kicked me and pissed on me and called me a whining, lazy loser)
-------------------
So, we voted in more Democrats
-------------------
L: See there, I told you we'd be in control this time!
(He laughed at me and chided: "Fool, don't you know that we own the Democrats as well as the Republicans, ha! ha! ha! Now bend over you coward.)
L: Yes, Sir! I'm so sorry we upset you...master!

It's all show...just part of the ruse to keep people herded down the corrupt two party chute to the slaughter house. Nothing, of any significance, will change to our favor as long as people keep falling for the false hope that is the Democrat party. They are the bait-and-switch party. As long as people believe that they only have one of two choices, the Republicans being the boogey man, the owned Democrats preaching false hope for "change we can believe in" (not), then nothing, of any significance, will change....except for the worse!!!

There will always be a ruse and excuse for why the Democrats were so "bullied" by the Republicans. But the thing people should realize is that the Democrats are part of the scam. Only when people start to vote en masse for parties outside of the good-old-boy cabal...like socialists or communists will things scare the monied powers so badly that they will have to relent. It's either that or take to the streets, en masse, like the people have in other countries. But it will have to be way bigger than the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations.

Quote chuckle8:Palin -- My usual response is for the 13 weeks when we had democrats in control we had so many positive results that I cannot see how one can say the 1% own the democrats.

chuckle8 ~ I have to side with Palindromedary on this one. I was there too. I remember clearly what I expected Mr. Obama and the Democrats to do as soon as they got in office. Here's what I would have done. Executive order declaring the Patriot Act illegal and unconstitutional. Immediate withdrawal of all troops from the middle east and a close of Gitmo. An initiative to completely repeal the free trade agreement. A plan to undo the Bush tax cuts. A full investigation and arrest of all Bankers involved in crashing our economy. (I'd even tried to make that fine justice example into a public spectacle.) Immediate bills written to institute national single payer health care--as promised in his campaign platform. A full investigation of the Bush administration for any and all unconstitutional war crimes--also, as promised in his campaign platform.

Instead, what did we get. We got a bunch of deers stuck in the prevailing headlights that were afraid to do anything substantial. It was obvious. You could hear the blind fear in their voices whenever interviewed. I'm so sure you could rattle of a list of small crumbs that they tossed our way; yet, the fact of the matter is that we got shafted and it was blatantly obvious. That was quite clear to me by week 6. Thats when I became officially disgusted. If utter failure to even propose any of the issues above is the best this party can do with a fully loaded three branches of government than Palindromedary is absolutely correct--they are completely worthless. From what I saw it was quite obvious that these assholes didn't really even expect to win. Their new found powers surprised and scared them into becoming completely docile. Obviously I am not alone in my gross disappointment; otherwise, the following election wouldn't have expressed so much complete disdain for the Democrat's performance. Let's face it Chuck, if these Democrats lived up to their promises they never would have been skunked in that midterm like they were by the Tea Party.

DAM and Palin -- I wish you would stop following the repug playbook. The dems were in control for just 13 weeks of the 104 weeks before those mid-terms. The plan hatched in the caucus room was in full force for 91 of those 104 weeks.

I do not consider changing a job loss of 700,000 jobs per month to a 200,000 jobs per month gain a small crumb. The ACA and consumer protection agency were far from perfect, but were not small crumbs.

This blog from time to time (or all the time) is where the perfect comes to destroy the good.

Palin - We agree on something. We should celebrate this moment of unity. If you were here and I were still a smoker or drinker, I'd offer you one.

Nothing, of any significance, will change to our favor as long as people keep falling for the false hope that is the Democrat party.

I think even Rush would agree with this. He frequently talks about the need the Democrats have for a "permanent underclass". They want the poor to vote for them, but they also want the poor to stay poor, so they will keep voting for them. If the Democrats achieved their campaign promises, no one would need them anymore.

Thom - over 40 people were shot and four killed this weekend alone in Chicago. That's a pretty standard weekend around here. And this is just one of many solidly-blue, crime-ridden urban areas. Why are you focusing just on the shootings in Vegas? Because it fits your narrative? Two police officers and one armed citizen were killed, and yes, that's a horrible thing. What do the victims in Chicago - mostly young, poor, and minorities - have to do to get the same attention?

chuckle8: But when are you going to stop following the ruling elite playbook? The ruling elite owns both parties and they use the Republicans as battering rams and the Democrats as sneaky sellouts to the people...either way the ruling elite gets what it wants. It wants to keep people so beguiled, fearful, and confused by using the Democrats to sell false hope and foster the illusion that all they have to do is vote in enough Democrats and everything will be alright. But it will never be alright..the Dems may try to keep the illusion going by trying to convince us that they made some headway but when you look at just what they accomplished, it is just trivial slop compared to what they could have done had they really been on our side. The ACA was a sellout to the insurance companies. We could have had a single payer system but the Obama regime dropped that idea immediately. They should have used their moment of power to really stick it to the Republicans. But, as DAnneMarc said:

Quote DAnneMarc:I remember clearly what I expected Mr. Obama and the Democrats to do as soon as they got in office. Here's what I would have done. Executive order declaring the Patriot Act illegal and unconstitutional. Immediate withdrawal of all troops from the middle east and a close of Gitmo. An initiative to completely repeal the free trade agreement. A plan to undo the Bush tax cuts. A full investigation and arrest of all Bankers involved in crashing our economy. (I'd even tried to make that fine justice example into a public spectacle.) Immediate bills written to institute national single payer health care--as promised in his campaign platform. A full investigation of the Bush administration for any and all unconstitutional war crimes--also, as promised in his campaign platform.

The Obama regime went on to fuel the war machine in the Middle East killing more civilians. They went on to cracking down on whistle-blowers. They continued to create a system that spies on civilians that have nothing to do with terrorism. They continued to support the NDAA and changed the wording to where they could target even US citizens for assassination. You can't tell me that Obama or other democrats are not part of the plan to totally subjugate each and everyone of us for their corporate elitist masters. They are just as guilty as the Republicans but they just use different tactics.

And what did our great expenditures of fortune and lives in the Middle East wars get us? What did we really accomplish? Last I heard the Taliban and Al Qaeda are moving back in to take the reigns of power in those countries. While we move out...they move back in! What a waste! We should have left those country's strong arms stay in charge of those countries. We meddled and it cost us dearly. We never seem to learn. But the military industrial complex are richer and stronger than ever. This country is looking more like the old Soviet Union or Nazi Germany.

As it was in Vietnam...(we, the people, and the people of Vietnam, lost that war...but the military industrial complex won. All those companies used a long protracted war they never intended to actually win so that they could screw the American taxpayers out of their wealth)...so too was it so in the Middle East. The whole idea was to wrangle and amass great fortunes from the people. Now, they are moving once again toward creating another staged enemy...our old "enemy"...Russia. There has always got to be an enemy to scare the people out of their wealth and feelings of peace and safety. That's how they manipulate people.

9-11 was just such a manipulation and it worked beautifully for them. Despite all of the obvious, glaring, indications that 9-11 was not just an operation planned outside of the U.S. by Osama bin Ladin and carried out by Muslim hijackers, it still has many people believing just that. Just the way those WTC towers fell at near free fall speed should be a glaring clue to everyone that 9-11 did not happen the way they got everyone to believe it happened.

And I would add to DAnneMarc's list that Obama should have demanded a real investigation into 9-11 not headed by some flunky that was a good friend of Condoleeza Rice...not done by clueless goofball politicians but by independent investigators who had an inkling of science...and physics...and architecture. No testimony would be omitted as it was in the 911 Commission. And none of it should be withheld from the public on any grounds...including the often misused "national security".

Chicago Matt: I think certain places tend to lose their shock factor when many deaths happen all the time in those places. And especially if you don't live there. How many people in the US get shocked that hundreds of people in other places in the world get killed in a day...especially the Middle East? A drone that massacres several dozen people at a wedding party in Iraq or Afghanistan may not even amuse or sadden someone in the U.S. even for a moment. It's ho-hum...so what else is new? But if that drone did the same thing in the U.S. then the citizens in the U.S. would get upset. Or, if the Taliban or Al Qaida manages to kill, or even just capture, a few American soldiers, then we're all upset and shocked. Maybe if those Chicago area shooters had decent paying jobs they wouldn't be out in the streets shooting people. Thank the Republicans for that!

As for "fitting a narrative"...what?... we can't do what the right wing media machine does all the time? I don't think we do it enough.

Palindromedary--sometimes your insights are brilliant. For most of the posts on this thread you go to great lengths to say how there is no difference between democrats and republicans. Then, in the previous post. You say "Thank the Republicans for that" as a reason for the shootings and joblessness in Chicago. WTF. Republicans have ran Chicago, or Illinois since Lincoln left. Be consistent, your creds suffer otherwise.

Oh You Ate One too: What I meant by "Thank the Republicans for that" was the destruction of American jobs since Reagan. I believe it has been more of a right-wing, conservative mentality to cut back on wages and benefits and offshore our jobs. They've also cut back on schools and libraries and left the city's streets a breeding ground for mischief and mayhem. Kids, whose parents that have been torn apart by poverty and dread and hopelessness have no other place to turn but the gangland ridden streets.

But, I do agree that some Democrats are not much better. After all, they (the politicians..Republicans and Democrats) are all sucking on the capitalist corporate sow's teats, aren't they? There really isn't much difference between the Republicans and Democrats when it comes to dangling from the strings of their puppet masters...the ruling elite.

There really isn't much difference when it comes to their Machiavellian tactics against the 99%. They'll tell us what we want to hear and then they stab us in the back. Obama is a prime example of that. One difference may be that at least the Republicans tell us up front that they are going to screw us. But what they do is rile up the fears and hatred of their sheeple flock by using diversion tactics like obtuse and relatively irrelevant unimportant things. They stir up the irrational fears and hatreds over side issues that have nothing to do with what is really important for the majority of the population.

On the other hand, it seems to me that the Democrats have done some of that as well...they take on issues that have meaning to only a small section of the population and claim victory for the whole population. But what they fail to do is secure victories on things that are really important for the majority of the population. And the one major thing they try to claim that they accomplished was the ACA...but that was originally a Republican plan to begin with...and it was a sell out of the American people to the insurance companies. They dropped the ball entirely on single payer which would have immensely benefited everyone far more than the ACA plan. But, of course, the insurance company puppet masters would not have been pleased with a single payer plan. Their already fat cat top execs and shareholders would have to compete with lowly paid government administration people and they would no longer be able to keep milking us dry, and being the profit maximizing death panels that they have been.

Yes, there are many very crooked Democrat politicians as well as Republican ones. But most all are bought off by the wealthy ruling elite. And, I believe that any politician that doesn't play ball (ie: take bribes) risks going the way of JFK. Unfortunately, the cards are stacked against honest politicians. That may be part of the reason why so many, perhaps, would-be honest politicians buckle under the immense threat from the real shadow government behind the facade of our fake government.

There really is no such thing as a real democracy when the few rich and powerful control the politicians. It certainly is not a "representative democracy" because the elected politicians don't really represent the majority of the people. That's why I say the only way things can change is if the people go way beyond voting...massive boycotts, massive demonstrations, etc.

I don't buy into this whole fear the 1% notion. It reminds me of fearing the bogey man. 1% of the current US population of 330,000,000 is 3,300,000 people give or take a few thousand. To believe that those 3,300,000 people get together at some secret meeting to plan the demise of the remainder is too much for me to swallow, and I can swallow a lot:)).

Every human being on this planet has 24 hours in his day, 365 days in his year. Every 4 years we are given a bonus day. How we value and use that time in a large part determines how effective our life will be. Think about it.

Quote chuckle8:...do you have any ideas how we can start massive boycotts, massive demonstrations etc?

I have no idea! And if I did, I'd have to convey that over an encrypted network using TOR or some other means that could better hide my identity. I'm not entirely sure how culpable one would be in such a case....with NDAA and all.

OU812: I think it is not just the 1%...you have to include a lot of people who are not technically in the top 1%..but who are top 1% "wannabes". Or even the ones who are in the top 10% or want to be in the top 10% or the top 20%...etc. We even have to include those poor deluded idiots at the bottom who listen and watch Fox Snooze and other right wing media. Maybe we need to make room for the poor deluded lefties who continue to listen and watch their favorite commentators who thought that voting for Obama the 2nd time was going to see a more positive change in his administration. We have to include all the poor deluded fools who still think that we can make a positive change by continuing to vote, call, write, or email their "representatives".

But, there are, of course, very wealthy and powerful people who do conspire to lead the country down certain paths. They own the major news media and use it to scare and confuse people in a manner consistent with their goals. And they will even engineer false flag operations, like 9/11, to scare people out of their freedoms and liberties. They will lie the nation into needless illegal and immoral wars. They realize that there may come a time when the people may, en masse, fight back against the war that they have been waging against the rest of us. So, they created a huge spying apparatus to keep tabs on us.

OU -- After further thought 1% really equals 69/7,000,000,000. Those 69 hold as much wealth as the bottom 50%. 1% is just easier to type. Unlike Palin I do not blame the people who use snake oil, just the sellers.

That's why we need a strong real liberal/progressive government .. to protect the unwitting yokels from the snake oil sellers. But how are you ever going to get the unwitting yokels from falling for the crooked two party system, yet again, that we have here? People keep watching Fox Snooze and falling for their idiocy and others keep watching left-leaning media and falling for their idiocy. The left-leaning media tend to hype up the Democrat party, get them to re-elect a president that failed to live up to his first presidential term. And now, I suppose, they will be touting how wonderful it will be to elect Mrs. Clinton for president. Yee Gads, what a mess!

You know, if people didn't use snake oil, there wouldn't be a market for it. People get suckered into spending their money on all kinds of "snake oil" products. Some actually do more harm than good.

And talking about snake oil...have you noticed that broadcast television channels are showing programs that are really marketing hype to sell products. I would expect this on Cable or Satellite TV but not so much on broadcast TV. Not just brief commercials...but whole programs. Even the news often features some kind of marketing hype disguised as news. It's like most newspapers are practically all advertisements. If I buy newspapers...it's not for news anyway...I like doing the crossword puzzles. I do read what little news they have seen fit to print but you have to wade through pages of advertizements to get to it.

you seem like a nice person. if you want to be an effective influencer, you need facts and math skills. What does the number 69 represent? What does 7 billion represent. I can assure you 69 divided by 7 billion doesn't equal 1 percent. You need to focus and identify to whom your anger is directed.

quote] A drone that massacres several dozen people at a wedding party in Iraq or Afghanistan may not even amuse or sadden someone in the U.S. even for a moment. [/quote]

I talk about drones a lot when I teach "War of the Worlds". The whole idea of the novel is, "How would it feel to be on the recieving end of a totally overwhelming force?" The audience for the novel was originally the British at the height of their empire. But it works well for Americans today. There are videos on youtube showing how drones are controlled from air-conditioned rooms in America, and how, for the people behind the controls, it looks and feels like a video game. Where is the honor in "fighting the enemy" if they have zero chance of fighting back? I always tell the students, it's like beating up a 3-year-old - sure, you can do it, but what does it say about you as a person if you do?

Maybe if those Chicago area shooters had decent paying jobs they wouldn't be out in the streets shooting people. Thank the Republicans for that!

Perhaps the Republicans got the ball rolling two generations ago, but what's going to help the situation now? If you were a business owner, would you even consider the rough areas of Chicago or any other city as a place to set up shop? I think what we all know, but don't want to admit, is that even if the economy were booming, at this point, the poor inner-city areas would still be bypassed and ignored and left out of the boom. You can't simultaneously want investment in your community, and then do everything you can to make your community unappealing to investors.

Quote ChicagoMatt:I'm a little spoiled by CGI, High Def, etc... When I see a movie made before, roughly, 1990, the quality of the picture and special effects annoys me.

ChicagoMatt ~ I don't know if I've ever heard anyone say anything sadder than that. Essentially you watch movies mainly for the sensory titillation and not for the content? Thats like listening to music and never hearing the lyrics. Thats like reading a book just because it has a lot of pretty pictures. If that is the result that high tech entertainment has provided our culture than it is actually a disservice indeed. How truly sad.

Quote ChicagoMatt:If you were a business owner, would you even consider the rough areas of Chicago or any other city as a place to set up shop?

ChicagoMatt ~ Strange you should ask that question. Last night we saw a documentary about Detroit. It looked like Aztec ruins. It was mentioned that a good size house in the city could be bought at auction for $500. We discussed the opportunity briefly to ultimately decide to forget it. Even as a rental property, not interested.

If you are trying to say that Democrats have done little to reverse this problem you would be right. However, that doesn't change the fact that the problem originated with Republicans; and, if not for the deliberate cooperation of the two parties, it never would have gotten this bad. It takes two to tango. Now thanks to gross incompetence and self serving politicians the problem has grown far beyond the ability of any private interest to resolve. Only the government has the resources and power to fix the problem. If the government fails to do anything about it, what we are seeing is some of our greatest cities being turned into Aztec ruins right before our eyes. Next time I tour those ruins I will do so with a greater understanding of just what must have happened back then.

What a shame! The solution is so simple too. Just repeal free trade and reinstate our trade tariffs. This isn't rocket science. It could be resolved with the sweep of a pen. The only reason our greatest national treasures are on the altar being sacrificed are because of the whims of the wealthy who profit from slave labor abroad. It is not either of the two political parties; who, are just bought and paid for shills of these elite. Political parties serve as red herrings and nothing more. Politicians are paid patsys who take the blame for the real villains who hide behind glass shrouded ivory towers and iron gated cities and guarded compounds. That is why they neither have or offer any real solutions for the problems of the masses. To them We the People are invisible; and, until we get money out of politics we will continue to be the silent unseen majority.

Essentially you watch movies mainly for the sensory titillation and not for the content? Thats like listening to music and never hearing the lyrics.

I'm not going to defend myself too much, because it is something I'm not happy about. But in a way, yes - I have a hard time getting into the "story" of a movie if the picture quality looks dated. As for music, there has only been one change in format in my lifetime - from CDs to digital. The quality is identical to me. I've had a few opportunities to listen to casette tapes, and I found the background static very distracting.

I've never even seen an 8-track. There could be one in front of me, and unless it was labelled, I wouldn't know what it was.

On a sort-of related topic: My students, who were all born post-2000, do not know that the little icon for "save" on Word and other programs is a 3.5" disk. They don't know what those are. It's just an icon to them.

The solution is so simple too. Just repeal free trade and reinstate our trade tariffs.

This we agree on. I think we might agree, also, that even if that happened and the manufacturing base came roaring back, the inner cities would still be left behind, due to a combination of a poorly-educated labor force, high crime, high taxes, etc...

Quote ChicagoMatt:This we agree on. I think we might agree, also, that even if that happened and the manufacturing base came roaring back, the inner cities would still be left behind, due to a combination of a poorly-educated labor force, high crime, high taxes, etc...

ChicagoMatt ~ Not at all! If our base came back they would look for the most strategic locations possible. Since most of those locations were already established and successfully built previously around the country in inner cities they will be the obvious targets for a return. The infrastructure determines where the factories go not the people. The people will always move closer to where there are jobs. Factories need infrastructure to receive raw materials, supplies, and to ship out goods. Wherever there is a waterway near freeways or a railroad track is where the factories will go--even if they have to tear down and rebuild the old factories that are already there. They're not going to set up shop in the middle of the suburbs, trust me.

As far as workers are concerned--especially blue collar ones--anyone can be trained to work in a factory without much education. Even a child can run a machine. It takes slightly more education to do the clerical/managerial work. The really high education, skills, and talents go with the people who keep the machines and computers running and repaired. When a machine or network breaks 30 - 100 people sit around twiddling their thumbs until it's repaired. Those engineers have to really be good at what they do. (Been there, did that.) However, you only need 1 or 2 - 30(or as much as 100) ratio of those guys to line workers. That is why so many ignorant and uneducated people had good jobs here in the 50's, 60's, and 70's. As money flows into an area, the crime rate takes care of itself.

Ou -- I think you mean communication skills, You seem to be a very good student. You are asking all the questions I like to answer. The cover on time magazine said the 85 wealthiest people in the world had as much wealth as the bottom half of the people. There are 7 billion people in the world. The number 85 was measured in the year 2012. The number for 2013 is 69.

Thanks for making think about who you I am angry at. Interestingly to me, is that I am not as angry with the RW about lying about their phony economic policy (free enterprise - refer to the Lewis Powell confidential plan) as I am with the LW for not knowing they are lying.

DAM -- At least it doesn't take a lot of thought to repeat myself. The strongest force to restablish tariffs is labor unions. The strongest force to bring back labor unions is the democratic party. One more vote in the senate in 2009 and we would have card check. It you are trying to say that Democrats have done little to reverse this problem, you would be wrong.

Your welcome, Chuck. Communicator would be a good wood choice, but so is influencer. No one is able to implement their ideas on their own. You need followers. Great leaders are able to do that, usually by being a great communicator. So I guess either would work. Also thank you for the compliment, I'm a teacher, and I think to be a good teacher, you have to be a better student:)

Marc - I respectfully disagree. If manufacturing came back in a big way, it would come back to the South and MidWest, mostly medium-sized towns. Not back to Detoit, Chicago, Pittsburg, etc... You know, the Rust Belt. If you google "Manufacturing in the USA", you will see lots of stories about how factories are in fact opening in the USA again, but all are located in non-union states, like the Carolinas.

My reasoning is:

1. Access to iron and steel isn't as important anymore. Plastics, which can be made anywhere, are the more likely main components.

2. Big cities, particularly in blue states, have higher taxes. The few factories that stay in Illinois, like Caterpillar, do so because they get special tax breaks just for them. On the other hand, the South starts off with already-low tax rates, and companies can negotiate them down even further.

3. Right-to-work states will be the first to get the jobs. For obvious reasons.

4. Access to rail and rivers isn't as important anymore either, thanks to trucking.

On a related note, if my understanding is correct, there is some deal being worked out that will allow Mexican truckers, non-Teamster types - to deliver in the USA. Currently they have to drop their loads at the border for an American trucker to pick up. But I remember hearing how they want to change that. The truckers will be able to take the load straight to its destination, and then pick up a load and take it back to Mexico.

The best, most cost-effective thing large cities with high-poverty areas can do now is to help train those people for specific jobs, and help them move to where the jobs are. Complaining about a lack of job opportunities in your area, while making no effort to get out of your area, doesn't do much good.

Chuck - You're trying to revive something that's never coming back. For whatever reason - Reaganomics, elitist consporacy, internal corruption, immigration, etc... - private sectors unions are destined to be small, local, relatively insignificant, and archaic. Although they may be good for the country and you may be right about how much good they would do, that era of American history is over. Even if card check would have passed, only areas that are already union-friendly would use it. Workers in red states, even if it would benefit them, wouldn't sign on en mass for a liberal/Democratic/Yankee/big-city/Communist or whatever they call it idea. That, in turn, would just push more jobs into the right-to-work states.

It's a fun idea to think about - a return to high union membership. Particularly if it's something you grew up with. I'll bet most people think things were better when they were growing up, and a return to those things is desireable.

Chi Matt -- What indications do you have that card check would not work in non-union states? The indicator for me that card check would work in the red/non-union states is how hard the repugs (synchophants of the 1%) fought to make sure it did not pass.

One of the really weird ironies of politics these days is the huge divergence between what the American people actually want and what the radical right-wingers in Washington actually do. You won’t hear this on Fox So-Called News, but right now the American people are as progressive as they ever have been.

"No one communicates more thoughtfully or effectively on the radio airwaves than Thom Hartmann. He gets inside the arguments and helps people to think them through—to understand how to respond when they’re talking about public issues with coworkers, neighbors, and friends. This book explores some of the key perspectives behind his approach, teaching us not just how to find the facts, but to talk about what they mean in a way that people will hear."

—Paul Loeb, author of Soul of a Citizen

From Cracking the Code:

"No one communicates more thoughtfully or effectively on the radio airwaves than Thom Hartmann. He gets inside the arguments and helps people to think them through—to understand how to respond when they’re talking about public issues with coworkers, neighbors, and friends. This book explores some of the key perspectives behind his approach, teaching us not just how to find the facts, but to talk about what they mean in a way that people will hear."

—to understand how to respond when they’re talking about public issues with coworkers, neighbors, and friends. This book explores some of the key perspectives behind his approach, teaching us not just how to find the facts, but to talk about what they mean in a way that people will hear."

From The Thom Hartmann Reader:

"Through compelling personal stories, Hartmann presents a dramatic and deeply disturbing picture of humans as a profoundly troubled species. Hope lies in his inspiring vision of our enormous unrealized potential and his description of the path to its realization."

—David Korten, author of Agenda for a New Economy, The Great Turning, and When Corporations Rule the World